The FBI has (finally!) changed the definition of rape to remove the requirement that the victim is a woman, the weapon is a penis and the "forcible" part. (So what did they call "the Sandusky" before? Plain old sexual assault, I guess?)

And how about that NDAA? So long habeus corpus, bye bye Bill of Rights. We've arrived at a point where unaccountable persons in the government (or serving corporations that subcontract for the government) can read your email, decide they don't like it, and stuff you into a van, never to be heard from again. Obama is expected to sign NDAA today-- if so it'll be exactly 220 years and a day after the Bill of Rights was ratified. There's a lot out there written about it (too little, too late), the IB Times has a good compilation. Of the Maryland Delegation, three voted for it: Hoyer, Ruppersberger and Bartlett. In the senate, Milkulski and Sarbanes both voted against.

Got an email from the Justice Policy Institute expressing aggravation that while prison populations are down nationwide, Maryland's prison population is up. Of course one's first gut reaction is, I don't want to pay $40-60 a day to feed, house and clothe 1.8% more assorted fuckweasels and fudgeclowns. But-- could it be-- dare we imagine-- that the growth in state prison population is a sign that homicides and shootings are down because police are arresting the right people, prosecutors are bringing better cases, rapes are being investigated and prosecuted and the jury pool is sucking slightly less? Note that per Gary Maynard, 40% of MD's prison population is from Baltimore City, 25% is from PGC, 15% from Baltimore County, and the state's other 21 counties make up the rest.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Nelson Bernard Clifford, a sex offender who just beat rape charges, was linked by DNA to two more rapes*. And was also charged with a rape last month. He was also charged with failing to register as a sex offender, but the circuit court dropped those charges, 10 days before he was charged with rape again.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

From January 1 until today, there have been 549 homicides and shootings so far in the city, compared with 942 in 2000.

The city closed about 1,000 more felony cases this year than it did in 2010, thanks to reorganization of the docket and the addition of a second administrative judge.

Deaths in which the manner was undetermined are way down, from 331 in 2007 to a virtually unprecedented 154 so far this year, said David Fowler of the ME's office. (Most of these are drug-related, with the ME's office unable to determine if a heroin addict injected themselves or was injected by someone else, which would make the death technically a homicide).

Arrested citizens released without charges are also way down from last year, with the city releasing 70% fewer arrestees with no charges than last year-- 4,875 fewer people.

And finally, homicide arrests: 93 so far this year for 189 homicides, for a tidy 50% clearance rate.

Of course, every rose has its thorn, and the one currently bedeviling the city's backside is property crime. So far this year the BPD reports that home-invasion robberies with a gun are up 25%, rape arrests are up 63% (of course we have an inkling as to why that might be*), burglary is up 12%, and commercial robberies with a gun are up 75% over this time last year.

So why so few shootings, murders and overdoses, and why so much robbery? Is the judicial system just that more effective this year? Is the economy turning former shoplifters into armed home invaders? All or none of the above? Mysteries abound...

Timothy Ray Berry of Owings Mills copped a guilty plea to illegal possession of weapons and explosives: he shot a kid in the leg with a BB gun, which led the FBI to search his house and find his stash of C-4 explosive material, an M-800 pyrotechnic device, containers of potassium nitrate and potassium chlorate, smokeless shotgun powder, model rocket igniters and motors, pool chemicals, various fuse materials, PVC and metal pipe of varying lengths and pipe fittings. (And he would've gotten away with it, if it wasn't for that kid!)

The Occupy Baltimore encampment is gone*. Police evicted them peacefully around 3 AM this morning with no arrests being reported.
(Un-paywalled-story here at the SF Chronicle, and video from Fenton*, who apparently never sleeps and/or was tipped off by someone... - MJ)

Can police check a passenger's immigration status during a traffic stop? If a passenger in a car has a history of arrest for armed robbery, can he be lawfully patted down for weapons? Can Spanish-speaking prospective jurors be dismissed if they aren't sure they can ignore any Spanish they encounter in favor of a translator's translation? All these questions and more answered in TDR's roundup of Fourth-Circuit Court of Appeals' Opinions

From the Evergreen listserv:

Video Americain [on Cold Spring Lane] was robbed on Wednesday, 7th of December at 9:30PM. We have a description of the robber who claimed to be wielding a firearm (which was never shown) and assaulted one of our employees before robbing us: African-American. 5'8 or 5'9. Skinny. Short dreads. Tribal-looking tattoo under left eye. Also noticed a smaller one near his right eye.

Police in Towson have arrested a man for committing a series of Goodwill store robberies. Richard Carvan Pettaway, 29, who also happened to be a former employee of the Padonia store, was busted after showing he seriously lacked goodwill. (That was terrible...)